TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- The question was a throwaway. Its purpose, like most first questions, was to simply break the ice in the traditionally awkward situation of 12 or more reporters grilling one football player for 5 or 6 minutes.

But in this particular setting, Alabama offensive guard Arie Kouandjio's response provided a deep enough meaning to make it anything but a throwaway answer.

"I'm very excited," Kouandjio said. "I've been waiting on this day for a very long time."

He certainly has.

The fourth-year junior who has battled back from multiple knee surgeries will make his first career start Saturday against Virginia Tech. He'll be at left guard -- right next to his younger brother, left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio.

Cyrus called it nothing short of a "blessing."

"It’s crazy because I know he’ll break his back trying to help me out and I’ll do the same for him," Cyrus said. "I’m looking forward to it."

The way Arie describes it, there was no specific incident that led to his multiple surgeries on both knees. It was more of a "long-term thing," he said, that's seriousness wasn't truly realized until he couldn't take the pain any longer.

"Eventually," he said, "someone else had to tell me I wasn't fine."

After redshirting his first season, Arie saw the field as a reserve for portions of the Crimson Tide's wins against Penn State and Arkansas. It was around that point, just a month into the season, in which it became clear that he needed to shut it down.

Arie considered retiring from football for only three hours, he said.

Alabama offensive lineman Arie Kouandjio (77) works through drills during the Crimson Tide's seventh preseason football practice of the 2013 season, Wednesday, August 07, 2013, at the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

"Somehow my father found out and my parents found out and they talked to me," Arie said. "I was fine again."

About a month later, Cyrus joined him in the trainer's room after tearing his own ACL.

While Cyrus joined the first-team offensive line at the start of the following spring, Arie was relegated to pedaling on a stationary bicycle. When the 2012 season came, Cyrus was Alabama's starting left tackle and Arie was a reserve guard.

The departure of All-American left guard Chance Warmack paved the way for Arie, who was originally recruited as a tackle, to play next to his brother. Outside of a brief experiment in which Arie swapped spots with right tackle Austin Shepherd, the Kouandjio brothers have been entrenched on the left side of Alabama's starting offensive line ever since the halfway point of spring football.

The rotation hasn't changed since Alabama's second preseason scrimmage.

"I just went out there doing whatever the team needed me to do," Arie said. "We were
just trying to figure out the best transaction, the best chemistry, and
we feel like we have a pretty good line now. We're going to move forward
with that."

The reasoning behind Arie's brief shift to right tackle came with some of the strongest praise Alabama coach Nick Saban has doled out to any player during the preseason. It was a move designed to maximize Arie's strengths and roots at the tackle position.

But ultimately, the Kouandjio brothers were meant to be side-by-side rather than bookends.

"We learned that it’s better to just pick a certain five and work on the
mesh, work on the chemistry," Cyrus said. "To keep flopping, it gets out of whack at
times."

His recovery complete, Arie has maintained his health for months. Asked how he felt after Wednesday's practice, he simply said, "I feel golden."

"It's pretty crazy because every day it gets stronger and stronger," he said. "Like
there were points where it was hard to imagine I'd be able to feel as
good as I feel now. I put my trust in God and God's not going to steer
you wrong."

Arie's end to Wednesday's interview session was just as poignant as the beginning.

He was asked to imagine the scene two years ago, when he and Cyrus worked to come back from their respective injuries. Would he have thought a person telling him that he'd be starting next to his brother just two years later was crazy?